- BY NEHA
I have recently made a bold and daring move in life in
order to better my career prospects. In my home country, I was pretty much
“stuck” professionally. While most other aspects of my life were moving along
well there (lovely home, doting family,
annoying yet adorable brother, awesome friends and by & large a comfortable
existence), I was pretty dissatisfied with how my career was shaping up.
This was primarily due to some overtly emotional and not well thought-out decisions
I had taken a couple of years ago. Had I been patient and perseverant, my work
could have catapulted me to great heights, because I had a lot of things
working in my favor. However, I take full responsibility for my actions.
For a while, I held factors and other people responsible
for my career downturn, but gradually I realized that I am where I am because
of the decisions I took. No one put a noose around my neck or twisted my arm
into doing anything. And the day I took complete responsibility and accountability
for my career and stopped lamenting the externalities that were beyond my
control, I realized that I needed to shake things up in my life if I wish to
get back on track.
My outlook towards my current ‘new’ job (in case you were wondering how the title
relates to the actual content of the post - I just came on board my current
company) in a foreign country, including my daily conduct at work, my
interactions with my colleagues and my general mood in office, are vastly
different from how I was in my previous organization. I no longer complain
about the stuff I do not like or bitch about the colleagues who aren’t that
nice to me. I have made a conscious decision to deliberately look out for
things that I absolutely love at my workplace. And you know what – the moment I
changed how I feel about my work, my working environment started reflecting my
changed thought patterns. I now enjoy coming to work every day. My Manager and
colleagues are all warm, friendly and helpful. I love my personal cabin, my
workstation, the ‘Starbucks’ coffee in office and even the long commute to work
(thanks to the picturesque landscape here).
Gratitude has become my way of life now, owing to the gazillions of times
people say ‘thank you’ here. Coming from a country where receiving thanks for
your ‘job’ is not commonplace (because
you are being paid for it!), hearing my Supervisors thank me for every task
I complete makes me feel acknowledged.
I know this may sound like flaky mumbo-jumbo but it worked
for me and continues to. One of my favorite writers/bloggers, Melody Fletcher, says,
“Your working environment does not
determine how you feel about your job. How you feel about your job determines
your work environment.” I honestly feel that she nailed this one bang-on.
Give it a try. It takes a tad bit of effort initially, especially if you are
used to grumbling and whining about your job. However, if you keep at it and
focus on aspects about your job that you appreciate, you will feel a whole lot
differently about your work.
It is easy to find fault in others and engage in
nitpicking. For some strange reason, many people have grown accustomed to doing
so at their workplace. Most of us think that we are working with a bunch of
nincompoops, who for some unfair reason are being paid more than us. However,
we fail to realize that our perception of others is essentially “OUR”
perception only. Some of us have an exaggerated opinion of our capabilities but
a depleted sense of other’s.
Having a mind of your own and using it is great. However,
what is greater is, having an opinion of your own, while at the same time
respecting someone else’s opinion (which
may be completely different from yours), without feeling the need to
justify your opinion or convince the other person to adopt your opinion. This
kind of an attitude goes a long way in helping you build and maintain amicable
ties with all and sundry.
Given that a vast majority of us spend most of our waking
hours working in a job, it makes perfect sense to actually start enjoying what
we do. As hard as it may seem to some people to come up with reasons they like
their workplace, there will always-always be something in your office that you
are pleased about and have either taken for granted or consider it as no big
deal (remember the front office lady who
greets you with the most wonderful smile every morning!).
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